Free Thirteen by Tom Hoyle

idea.”
    â€œYes, a bad idea,” he said, looking at Cassie.
    â€œAdam,
please
forgive me. I was really worried when I realized you’d gone.” Megan was near to tears.
    â€œIt seems that things didn’t work out,” said Cassie.
    Adam moved between the girls, pushing Megan slightly behind him, leaving a very faint red imprint on her top.
    The rain fell heavily.
    Walking toward Cassie, Adam growled, “Listen to me, you evil bitch.” He gripped the lamp. Cassie cast a large shadow against a nearby tent.
    â€œAdam, we really are sorry. It was stupid,
stupid
, and dumb,” interrupted Megan. She was properly crying, her face contorted and her shoulders moving erratically up and down. “Please can we go back now?”
    Cassie mimicked her: “Please can we go back now?”
    Megan still cried, soaked and alone, as Adam moved closer to Cassie.
    Adam spoke very deliberately, fear gone, anger composing him. “Cassie, or whatever your name is, I
promise
you that if you don’t go, I will make you.”
    A million drops of rain drummed off tents and hard earth.
    Cassie spoke equally slowly, but quietly, so not even Megan could hear: “If you have hurt Harry or anyone else, I will cause you so much pain that you will
beg
to die.”
    They stared at one another, bonded by hatred.
    Megan came to Adam’s side. “Please,
please
let’s go back now. I want to go home.”
    Cassie moved away, unsmiling. “I’m sure we’ll get to play truth or dare again sometime. . . .” Then she started to run.
    Megan stood next to Adam in the dark as he washed his hands under the outside tap near to their tents. Her eyes were red with emotion and sudden fatigue. “What happened? Why are you washing your hands? I don’t understand.” She looked thin in her wet jumper and jeans. “And what’s that?” she pointed at the case that Adam had retrieved.
    Fear and guilt coiled like two snakes in Adam’s mind. He started to shake.
    â€œMegan, I would normally tell you anything. But I never want to talk about what happened tonight.” He had never shouted at Megan before,
ever
, but he did now. There was real desperation in his voice. “Never, never. Have you got that?”
    Megan’s face splintered again into tears and confusion.
    Adam stepped forward and put his arms around her. She stood still, like a pillar, arms at her side. Adam didn’t say anything.
    Megan didn’t understand what Adam had done, but she knew that the hug meant he was sorry, and that he cared for her. But she still feared that something had happened to change their lives.

15
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2013
    Adam didn’t sleep at all that night. He was terrified of another attack, so he never actually put his head down. His tent was some way from Cassie’s and Keenan’s, and much nearer to the main road through the site, but sometimes a rustle rose above the drumming of the rain and Adam tightened his grip on the mallet used to drive in the tent pegs. He was in mortal danger. And he had done something terrible. He knew he should tell someone.
    But how could he? He was a
killer
.
    His parents were decent people, but they would immediately involve the police, which would lead to arrest and imprisonment, probably. Adam didn’t really know what they did with thirteen-year-olds, but the words
Young Offenders’ Institution
hung over him. Or maybe they would send him to a
home
, a Victorian building with brutal dormitories and metal beds and cold showers.
    Adam saw his future dribbling away. He prodded the locked suitcase.
    He certainly couldn’t confide in anyone at school. He hardly knew his form teacher, Mrs. Hopkins. Mrs. Tavistock? No way. Mr. Sterling? He wouldn’t be shocked to hear Adam hadmassacred a village, but even he would probably do what teachers do. It would all go straight back to parents and the police.
    Asa or Leo?